Mayor's Fund-Raiser Got Millions
Love and Money
Carolyn Carpeneti, Mayor Willie Brown's fund-raiser and
mother of his 2-year-old daughter, has been paid at least
$2.33 million over the past five years by nonprofit groups
and political committees controlled by the mayor and his
allies, public records show.
Since 1998, when Carpeneti, then a socialite in the midst
of a messy divorce, was tapped by Brown to raise money for
the county Democratic Party, she has emerged as one of the
top political fund-raisers in San Francisco.
People familiar with her career - political professionals,
city officials, her ex-husband - say Carpeneti's success is
rooted in her relationship with Brown, whom she met in
1995. Their daughter was born in 2001, when she was 38 and
he was 67.
According to documents and interviews, the mayor has
steered to Carpeneti lucrative jobs with a long list of
Brown-backed political committees, foundations and
candidates, including such powerful state officials as Gov.
Gray Davis, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Senate leader John
Burton.
Brown allows Carpeneti to drop his name when contacting
potential donors and he attends the fund-raising events she
puts on, according to people familiar with her business.
That enables her to obtain hefty donations from
corporations and high-wealth individuals beholden to Brown,
including city commissioners, lobbyists, contractors and
developers with business at City Hall.
Brown's critics say that Carpeneti's role as a highly paid
mayoral fund- raiser reflects how patronage politics has
come to infuse San Francisco City Hall.
Since Brown became mayor in 1996, a cadre of favored
lobbyists, developers and contractors have prospered by
exploiting their ties to Brown, said Charles Marsteller,
former head of the good government group San Francisco
Common Cause.
"There have been a series of mayoral supporters who derive
substantial income from their relationship with the mayor,"
he said. "This takes it to a new level."
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, a Brown foe, said that because of
her personal relationship with Brown, it was "unseemly" for
Carpeneti to solicit donations from interests that do
business with the city.
Carpeneti spoke to a Chronicle reporter earlier this year
about the women's summit, but she declined to be
interviewed for this story. Mayoral spokesman P. J.
Johnston dismissed the story as "character
assassination."
City records also show that in 1998, Brown arranged for
Carpeneti to obtain a rent-free office in the city-owned
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.
The office is supposed to be used to put on the annual
Mayor's Summit for Women, an event that has paid Carpeneti
$987,000 since 1999. But public records show she has used
the city office for her fund-raising business as well.
Recently, after a series of queries from The Chronicle, she
began moving out.
The mayor's role in obtaining the free office space for
Carpeneti pushed the envelope on a state legal ban on gifts
of public funds, other critics claimed.
State law prohibits officials from making unauthorized
public expenditures "solely for the private benefit" of an
individual or an entity.
"If this doesn't cross the line, it comes awfully close,"
said Jim Knox, executive director of California Common
Cause. "At the very least it seems questionable for her to
have free use of a public resource in her role as private
campaign consultant."
The free rental for the office is "absolutely not
appropriate," agreed Jon Coupal, president of the Howard
Jarvis Taxpayers Association. "It is a waste of taxpayer
funds and the kind of activity that gives government a bad
name."
Turbulent career
People who know her say Carpeneti is an ambitious, upwardly
mobile woman who has become an important player in the
world of political finance - even though she once had
little interest in the subject.
"She wouldn't have a career as a fund-raiser if it wasn't
for the mayor," said ex-husband Richard Carpeneti. They
went through a difficult divorce, but he calls her a nice
person and a good mother. "Before Willie, politics were not
a big thing - politically she didn't know anything," he
said.
Carpeneti, 41, formerly known as Alice Carolyn Mundt, grew
up in Contra Costa County. A high school dropout, she
passed the state GED test in 1979 and never went to
college, court records show. Before moving to San
Francisco, she had a turbulent career in the computer
industry.
At age 25, Carpeneti worked in sales support at Integral
Systems, a Walnut Creek company that sold
personnel-management software for mainframe computers.
There, she befriended David Duffield, the avuncular,
guitar-playing computer expert who had founded the
firm.
In 1988, Duffield quit to start a new company that would
create similar human-relations software to run on PC
computers.
The startup was called PeopleSoft, and Carpeneti was one of
a handful of workers in on the ground floor. She took a
$14,000-per-year sales job with a tremendous upside:
PeopleSoft has grown into a multibillion-dollar company,
and other members of the original team have become
millionaires.
But Carpeneti lasted only a year. PeopleSoft said she was
fired for incompetence, untruthfulness, and unprofessional
conduct, as a federal judge later summarized its complaints
about her; the firm cited a resume that falsely claimed a
degree from St. Mary's College in Moraga.
But in a 1990 lawsuit, Carpeneti contended she was a victim
of sexual harassment.
She claimed Duffield began hitting on her soon after she
joined the company.
When she spurned him, she said, she was demoted and then
fired.
Meanwhile, Integral Systems also sued PeopleSoft, claiming
Duffield had used stolen trade secrets in his startup.
Carpeneti was a star witness against PeopleSoft, testifying
she had seen pirated Integral marketing materials and
computer documentation in use at the new firm.
But PeopleSoft denied illegal conduct and Duffield, now the
company's chairman, said he hadn't harassed Carpeneti. The
company claimed in court records that Carpeneti's
accusations were founded in grudges and psychological
problems: she allegedly told co-workers she was in therapy
because she had difficulties forming healthy relationships
with men.
PeopleSoft settled both the Integral Systems claim and the
harassment suit out of court. Details of the settlements
were secret.
San Francisco socialite
Long before that, she had moved to San Francisco, where in
1990 she met and married a lawyer 20 years her senior.
Richard Carpeneti was a political player - a confidant of
then-Mayor Frank Jordan, who had named him president of the
Housing Authority Commission. He owned five apartment
buildings in the city, and a second home in Marin.
And he was a member of a socially prominent family: his
father, the late Superior Court Judge Walter Carpeneti, was
a philanthropist, opera buff and leader of the Calamari
Club, a network of influential lawyers and judges.
She joined the Junior League and modeled at charity fashion
shows at the Fairmont. Her name appeared in society
columns.
The couple's son was born in 1992. Then the marriage
deteriorated. In 1995, court records show she wrote him a
goodbye letter - "I'm sorry I can't live with the person
you are" - and packed his clothes into trash bags that she
left in the basement of one of the apartments.
Richard Carpeneti said he was distraught: He told a judge
his only goal was to patch up the marriage. Instead, their
divorce became so bitter that it took two separate trials
to settle the issues.
Carolyn Carpeneti and her lawyers - she used four different
firms, at a cost of $112,000 - pushed to maximize the child
support and alimony she would receive. She asked the court
to order her ex-husband to pay her college tuition,
claiming she couldn't earn a living unless she went to
school.
The legal wrangling went on for four years. In the end,
court records show she received a settlement of $115,000
cash, half the proceeds of the sale of the family home in
the Marina District, $54,800 in alimony spread over several
years and a Jaguar car. Child support was set at $1,800 per
month.
After it was over, Carpeneti bought a $1.3 million home in
the city's Forest Hill district. By then she was deeply
involved with the mayor.
'Called her Carpeneti'
According to people who know them, then-Assembly Speaker
Brown met her at a party during the 1995 mayor's race.
Brown, who is married but has been separated from his wife
for 25 years, was dating lawyer Kamala Harris, now a
candidate for district attorney. Nevertheless, Brown soon
phoned Carpeneti and invited her to a campaign event.
The relationship intensified after Brown was elected.
Telegraph Hill activist Gerry Crowley recalls them,
seemingly happy and animated, dropping by a political
dinner at Jardiniere near the Civic Center.
"He called her 'Carpeneti,' not Carolyn, and they had salad
and red wine," she recalled.
By 1998, Brown had gotten Carpeneti a job planning a party
for the county Democratic Central Committee, which was
raising unregulated "soft money" donations that it would
later spend to re-elect the mayor.
At the event, while Brown looked on, Carpeneti presented
the party with a check for $35,000.
"She's worked hard fund-raising for the Democratic Party
Central Committee and that's just the tip of the iceberg,"
Brown said, according to an account still posted on the
party Web site. She was paid $7,900.
A month later, Carpeneti produced the first San Francisco
Mayor's Summit for Women, a headline-grabbing civic event
that showcased Brown as a booster of women's rights. Brown
got her the job, she said in an interview. After that,
he named her his fund-raiser.
Few thought Brown needed help raising money. As Assembly
speaker, he had been known as one of the most skilled
fund-raisers in California history, a master at obtaining
campaign donations from special interests in need of
favorable legislation or regulatory decisions. From 1987
though 1995, he obtained $28.3 million in donations, state
records show.
Still, he had steered fund-raising business to a girlfriend
before. For most of the 1980s, Brown's fund-raiser was
Wendy Linka, a socialite and former cosmetics buyer at the
old I. Magnin store in San Francisco whom he was
dating.
In 1996, Linka followed Brown to City Hall, where she was
hired as a $60, 000-per-year marketing director for the
film commission; and then as $72,000- per-year marketing
director at Treasure Island. Linka filed a workers'
compensation claim and left city service in 1998.
Free office space
After Carpeneti was put in charge of the Women's Summit,
Brown also helped her obtain a free office across the
street from City Hall.
In 1998, Brown and Carpeneti met with Richard Shaff, vice
president of SMG, the company that manages the Bill Graham
Civic Auditorium for the city, according to a letter SMG
provided. Shaff then provided her a furnished office in the
city building.
She paid no rent, and Shaff said that no contract or lease
was ever signed. He said the office was used for the
Women's Summit. But Carpeneti appears to have no other
business office. Public records show she has used it in
connection with fund-raising for such clients as former
Assessor Doris Ward, former Assembly speaker and
unsuccessful Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio
Villaraigosa, last year's "Save Hetch Hetchy" water bond
measure and a recent "roast" of clothier Wilkes
Bashford.
She listed the city office as her business address on her
company's letterhead. When callers dialed the listed
telephone number of Carolyn Carpeneti & Co., the phone
rang in the city office.
Recently, Shaff said Carpeneti was moving out because no
other summits were likely to be held.
Ran Women's Summit
With Brown's backing, Carpeneti's fund-raising business
boomed. Her business is known as Carolyn Carpeneti &
Company. Carpeneti is the only officer or director of the
corporation.
She became president of a foundation set up to put on
women's summits, and produced the five events, starting in
1998. (No summit was held in 2002.) Her fee this year was
about $288,000, she told The Chronicle.
During the 1999 campaign, Brown's re-election committee
paid her $416,000, and a committee he set up to explore a
race for the state Senate paid her $210, 000 last year,
public records show.
She's been paid $440,000 by local political committees
backing ballot measures or candidates favored by Brown, and
$35,000 more by local candidates. State officials with ties
to Brown have paid her $213,940.
In all, public records reflect payments of $2.33 million.
The total is probably higher, because some nonprofits for
whom Carpeneti has reportedly worked haven't disclosed
payments to her.
They include the San Francisco Mayor's Youth Fund, which
does an annual fund-raising event at the Fairmont; the San
Francisco Extreme Games Host Committee, which helped put on
the "X Games" sports exhibition in 2000; and the San
Francisco Special Events Committee, which spent more than
$850,000 in city funds to put on the city's Y2K New Year's
celebration.
George Riley, lawyer for the special events and host
committees, said nonprofits weren't legally required to
reveal the names of contractors they pay. He didn't respond
to a query about whether the nonprofits had ever paid
Carpeneti.
Hiring Carpeneti is the price politicians or political
groups must pay to get Brown's help with a fund-raiser in
San Francisco, political professionals say.
"Everybody knows the mayor is a prolific fund-raiser, so if
you (involve) the mayor, he can do it for you in a
nanosecond," said a fund-raiser who asked not to be quoted
by name. "But instead of working with the (campaign's)
finance person, he muscles Carolyn in on every project. . .
. The mayor has always insisted that she get the gig,
because she gets a percentage of the money."
Carpeneti often is paid 15 percent of the donations she
collects, sources said. That's what many professional
fund-raisers charge.
Once Carpeneti is retained and the mayor is involved,
Brown's donors pony up - whether or not they have an
obvious interest in the candidate.
Take, for example, her May 2001 fund-raiser at the Balboa
Cafe for Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles mayoral
candidate.
The list of donors who gave up to $1,000 each was studded
with the names of past or would-be beneficiaries of Brown's
favor: Chinatown businessman Ben Hom,
whom Brown later tried to put on the Port Commission;
lobbyist and former Brown law partner Stephen Besser, whose
wife has obtained a series of city and airport
transportation contracts; Alameda developer Ron Cowan,
Brown's business partner and former law client; business
consultant James Jefferson, who has won a series of city
development contracts; San Francisco Examiner Publisher
Florence Fang and her son, BART Director James Fang;
Chinatown activist Rose Pak; live-work loft booster Joe
O'Donohue's Residential Builders Association.
The event raised more than $30,000; Carpeneti was paid
$5,222.
Top donors
Corporations whose bottom lines are directly affected by
regulatory decisions at Brown's City Hall were top donors
for other Carpeneti events, city records show.
For the 2003 Summit she collected big donations from such
City Hall lobbying presences as: AT&T ($50,000), the
heavily regulated provider of both cable television and
cellular telephone in the city; Wells Fargo Bank ($50,
000), which with other banks has lobbied against a proposed
city ban on ATM fees; and Mirant Energy ($25,000), which
wants to expand its Potrero Hill power plant in the face of
community opposition.
The event also drew a $50,000 donation from construction
giant Tutor-Saliba,
lead contractor on the $3 billion airport reconstruction
project. The company is the target of a city lawsuit
alleging that it had overbilled the airport by tens of
millions of dollars. Brown tried to block the city attorney
from suing Tutor.
Many contractors have given to multiple Carpeneti clients.
One frequent donor is Forest City Enterprises, a Cleveland
firm that sought - and eventually obtained - $27 million
city subsidy for its Bloomingdale's department store
project at the old Emporium building on Market Street.
Forest City has donated more than $20,000 to three women's
summits, records show. Its executives gave $8,000 for
Brown's re-election, and another $10,000 to the county
Democratic Committee.
In all, the company gave $111,000 to 11 different
candidates or causes affiliated with the mayor via
Carpeneti, including $50,000 to San Franciscans for
Responsible Planning, Brown's failed attempt to stop the
slow-growth initiative Prop. L in 2000.
Official scrutiny
At times, Carpeneti's fund-raising has attracted official
scrutiny.
Last year, her role as intermediary on what District
Attorney Terence Hallinan has called an illegal $25,000
political contribution to the Democratic Central Committee
was scrutinized by the DA and the state Fair Political
Practices Commission, records show.
That probe arose via the district attorney's corruption
case against former San Francisco schools executive Tim
Tronson, accused last year of bilking the district of
$850,000 in concert with a school district energy
contractor called Strategic Resource Solutions.
According to an affidavit, SRS subcontractor Alpha Omega
Bibbs said SRS had embezzled $35,000 from the district via
a phony contract change order and set out to donate $25,000
of the money to Brown.
Bibbs said he contacted Carpeneti about the donation and
met her at a restaurant. But Carpeneti told Bibbs that the
firm could not give $25,000 to the mayor because of the
city's $750 cap on individual donations. She suggested the
company instead give the money to the central committee,
which was running an independent campaign to re-elect Brown
that wasn't subject to the limit. That's how the money was
routed. Bibbs was indicted with Tronson and four other
people, but Carpeneti was not accused of wrongdoing in the
matter.
Carpeneti and Brown have continued to date since their baby
was born. Together they've attended opera galas, the
opening-night party at the Asian Art Museum and Major
League Baseball's World Series party at the Ferry Building
during the Giants' miracle season last year, The Chronicle
reported. They also appeared at this year's Chinese New
Year's parade, with baby Sydney clad in a Chinese pajama
suit.
But Brown also is seen with other women, and some people
who know Carpeneti believe the relationship is fraying.
In November 2001, Carpeneti filed a paternity suit against
Brown, a court index shows. The lawsuit itself is sealed by
law.
Still, the fund-raising goes on. Sunday night Brown and
Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson are hosting a
$1,000-per-person black-tie dinner at the Fairmont to raise
money for the state Democratic Party. Donors are asked to
send their checks to Carpeneti & Company, the
invitation says.
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CITY HALL LOBBYISTS OFTEN PATRONIZE CARPENETI'S
EVENTS
Corporations that lobby Willie Brown's City Hall and
high-wealth individuals with ties to the mayor often turn
out to Carolyn Carpeneti's events. Among the frequent
donors to her clients:
At&T: $345,000+
TO: Women's summits; Brown's mayoral and state Senate
committees; Secretary of State Kevin Shelley; Antonio
Villaraigosa's campaign for mayor of L.A.
INTEREST: Held city monopolies on cable television and
cable internet access.
Bank of America: $94,000+
TO: Women's summits; Brown's re-election; Villaraigosa's
Assembly and L.A. mayoral campaigns; 1998 Gov. Davis event
in the city.
INTEREST: Faced city scrutiny over merger with North
Carolina's NationsBank.
Lobbied against city setting limits on ATM fees.
Catellus: $112,500+
TO: San Franciscans for Responsible Planning, a Brown
measure to stop the Prop. L slow-growth initiative; Save
Hetch Hetchy bond measure; women's summit.
INTEREST: Brown's law client when he was speaker of the
Assembly. Builder of Mission Bay project.
Norcal Waste Systems: $76,000+
TO: The county Democratic Committee; Save Hetch Hetchy;
Gov. Davis' event; Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante; Supervisor
Amos Brown; Mayor Brown's state Senate campaign; Shelley;
Villaraigosa; women's summits.
INTEREST: Has city contract to haul trash.
The Gap: $111,300+
TO: Mayor Brown, Supervisor Amos Brown, Save Hetch Hetchy,
Shelley, Bustamante, Villaraigosa, two women's summits.
INTEREST: Won Redevelopment Agency deal for new waterfront
headquarters. CEO Donald Fisher is major Democratic
donor.
Forest City Development: $111,000+
TO: Women's summits; county Democrats; Gov. Davis, Amos
Brown, Save Hetch Hetchy, anti-Prop. L.
INTEREST: Obtained $27 million subsidy for downtown
Bloomingdale's project.
SKS: $34,000+
TO: Brown's state Senate campaign, county Democrats, stop
Prop. L, Amos Brown.
INTEREST: Won city permits for Bryant Square project in the
Mission District.
Stephen & Jacqueline Besser: $9,200+
TO: Women's summits, Mayor Brown, Shelley, Villaraigosa,
1998 Save Treasure Island measure.
INTEREST: City lobbyist Stephen Besser is a former partner
in a law firm where Brown moonlighted while in the
Assembly. Jacqueline Besser's Daja Inc. won a share of more
than $70 million in city contracts, including a parking lot
management deal and a ground transportation contract at the
airport.
Ben Hom: $7,300+
TO: Brown, Save Hetch Hetchy, Bustamante, Shelley,
Villaraigosa.
INTEREST: Brown nominated Hom to the Port Commission, but
supervisors rejected him because of alleged prior
misconduct on other city boards.
Alameda developer Ron Cowan: $32,000+
TO: Brown, Villaraigosa, county Democrats, Save Treasure
Island.
INTEREST: Brown's longtime friend and former law client.
They partnered in an Alameda realty firm.
Emerald fund: $38,000+
TO: Brown, Shelley, Villaraigosa, Amos Brown, women's
summits, county Democrats, Save Hetch Hetchy.
INTEREST: Developer Oz Erickson's firm won the rights to
build a waterfront hotel at what has been a Muni bus
layover lot at Mission and Steuart streets.
HMS Associates: $44,000+
TO: Brown, Gov. Davis' event, Villaraigosa, Shelley,
Women's Summits.
INTEREST: City Hall super-lobbyist Marcia Smolens has
represented AT&T, Bechtel, Catellus, other corporations
with business at City Hall.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail the reporters at phoge@sfchronicle.com and
lwilliams@sfchronicle.com.
PAYMENTS TO CARPENETI & COMPANY FROM NONPROFITS AND
PACS WITH TIES TO
BROWN'S ADMINISTRATION DURING THE PAST 5 YEARS
Committees
payments
$2,336,641.91
San Francisco Mayor's Summit for Women
987,052.00(x)
Willie Brown: Mayor and state Senate
626,891.71
San Franciscans for Responsible Planning (Stop Prop. L)
363,663.75
Antonio Villaraigosa, Assembly speaker and mayor of L.A.
87,492.35
Gray Davis for Governor
60,941.32
San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee
44,515.78
Kevin Shelley for Secretary of State
33,468.86
Cruz Bustamante, Lt. Gov.
30,397.54
Friends of BART-SFO
30,000.00
San Francisco PAC
20,000.00
Amos Brown for Supervisor
14,872.59
Save Hetch Hetchy Committee-Yes On A
12,313.25
Doris Ward for SF Assessor
5,522.00
Michael Yaki for SF Supervisor
5,265.00
Becerril for SF Supervisor
4,132.50
Mabel Teng for SF Supervisor
4,023.75
Andrew Lee for SF Supervisor
1,918.75
Save Treasure Island No on K
1,730.76
John Burton, State Senate President, D-SF
1,640.00
San Francisco Small Business Advocates PAC
800.00
(x) No summit in 2002. Payment for 1998 summit not
available
Source: City and state records; interviews.
Chronicle Graphic
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